MSG Charles Lindewald

Her older brother, U.S. Army Master Sergeant Charles Lindewald, a LaPorte native, was declared missing in action following an attack during the Vietnam War in 1968. His body was never found. That was until November 2003, when a U.S. government excavation team recovered the re-mains of the 29-year-old Lindewald.

"I think it's wonderful," said Mary, 54, the youngest of three children, who grew up in LaPorte. "It was a relief and joyous to me that he would be laid to rest and people would know about him."

Contacted a year after the remains were retrieved by the U.S. Army, Perez, a private care nurse who lives in Michigan City, immediately felt sad, "but relief because it was a sense of closure. There was a part of me that believed he would be found. I had a feeling, call it intuition."

U.S. Army Master Sergeant Charles Lindewald, A LaPorte native, in this undated photo.

Charles, along with another soldier, Kenneth Hanna, of North Carolina, were killed near Lang Vei in Vietnam where their Detachment A-team 101 Company C 5th Special Forces group came under attack Feb. 6, 1968. After Charles suffered injuries to his chest and abdomen, Hanna carried him into a bunker for safety. However, the bunker collapsed during the attack and both were killed.

"I was Proud of him. It was special because he was a Green Beret," said Perez, a mother of three.

A group funeral for the two soldiers will be held at Arlington National Cemetery on Feb. 4 at which Perez will attend. A burial with Lindewald's remains will take place in April. >A couple Vietnamese men who were searching for scrap metal on former Vietnam War battlegrounds came across the remains of Lindewald's body, Perez said. The men contacted the U.S. government about what they had come across in their search. A U.S. excavation team recovered the dentures worn by Charles, along with his photo identification card and bone fragments, Perez said. Hanna's bone fragments were also found.

The year between the discovery of the remains and contacting family members is done in order to positively identify that indeed the remains were that of Lindewald, Perez said.

"(U.S. government) really tries hard to prove this is the person," she said.

Interestingly, Perez's son Stephen Bradshaw, a U.S. Army infantryman, is returning Jan. 29 from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Unfortunately, being 13 years younger than Charles and with him being away on military duty as Perez was growing up, she didn't know her brother all that well. Perez was the youngest of three with Charles being the oldest and Tom the middle child.

She recalls a vivid memory of her biggest brother. He bought me a bike when I was 9 and taught me how to ride. He held me up and helped me bike around grandma's front yard," she remembers. Charles Uncle, Carl Lindewald, 74, fondly recalls his nephew who was only eight years younger than him.

"He was more like a brother than a nephew to me," Carl, a LaPorte resident, said. "You wouldn't find a nicer guy."

Charles enjoyed serving in the military and he loved being a Green Beret, Carl said.

"He was 100 percent gung ho," he said of Charles, who was awarded three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.

Carl, too, was pleased to hear the news that his nephew, who he drank beer with when Charles came back to town on military leave, would finally receive his proper burial.

"I was glad it was finally over with. I always thought he was dead, but you let yourself think maybe he got away."